1Episode 12b.Phases, relative clauses, and LF(ch. 10)CAS LX 522Syntax IIslands and phases,summary from last time…! Sentences are “chunked” into phases as theyare built up. Phases are CP and DP.! A feature outside of a phase cannot match afeature further inside the phase than its specifier.! This leads to island phenomena, configurations inwhich a wh-word would be “trapped”:! CNP islands: A wh-word cannot get to the specifier of DPand so is not visible from outside.! Wh-islands: A wh-word cannot get to the specifier of anembedded question (that already has a wh-word, or Op, inits specifier).! Adjunct islands: Even the specifier is not visible if thephase did not get a !-role.“Island effects” are a property ofmovem ent.! Consider the following:! Jack believes [DP the claim [CP that the list does not include Ethan ]]?! *Who does Jack believe [DP the claim [CP that the list does not include _ ]]?! Who believes [DP the claim [CP that the list does not include who ]]?! Dr. Hibbert laughed [CP when Homer lost a finger ].! *What did Dr. Hibbert laugh [CP when Homer lost _ ]?! Who laughed [CP when Homer lost what ]?! So long as the wh-phrase doesn’t move, itseems that there’s no problem with simplyhaving a wh-phrase inside an island.“Island effects” are a property ofmovem ent! Japanese: a wh-in-situ language.! Taroo-ga [DP Hanako-ni nani-o ageta hito-ni ] aimasita ka?T-nom H-dat what-acc gave man-dat met.pol Q‘*What did Taro meet [ the man that gave _ to Hanako ]?’! Taroo-ga [CP Hanako-ga nani-o yomu maeni ] dekakemasita ka?T-nom H-nom what-acc read before left.pol Q‘*What did Taro leave [ before Hanako read _ ]?’! Wh-words don’t move. Islands don’t matter.Why phases?! One of the main motivations behind phases(conceptually—empirically, there is plenty ofevidence) is that is makes computation easier.! That is, again, the system is lazy. It works in chunks, it neverhas to look too far to find a feature for checking.! What happens when a phase is “committed”?! The standard idea is that the phonological interpretationand semantic interpretation of that chunk becomes fixed,and can’t be altered later. Terminology: “Spell-out”! Terminology: The requirement that movement notgo “too far” (not escape a committed phase)was known in the old days as Subjacency—youmay still encounter this term when talking tolinguists at parties (or reading older papers).Relative clauses! Another place where we see wh-movement, besides in explicit questions(either in the main clause orembedded) is in relative clauses.! The book which I read! The woman who(m) I met! These consist of a head noun (book,woman) and then what appears to bea wh-question that further specifies thereferent of the head noun.2Relative clauses! Relative clauses serve to modify thehead noun.! Kind of like adjectives, or PP modifiers.! The unhappy students.! The students from Vancouver.! The students who solved the problem.! So where would you put them?Relative clauses! The structure of arelative clause:! A CP [clause-type:Rel,uwh*] is adjoined to theNP, like an adjective, ora PP modifier.! The meaning isessentially “the manwith the property ofbeing the answer to‘Who did I meet?’ ”! We’ll see in a momentthat C [Rel] can bepronounced as either Øor as that.C[uwh*][c-t:Rel]C"CPTPI met timannPDtheDPnPDPiwho(m)Differences between questions andrelative clauses! The “question” inside a relative clause has acouple of odd properties, not shared withregular main clause or embedded questions.! *The problem what I solved.! The problem which I solved.! The problem which I will solve.! The problem I solved.! The problem that I solved.Which/that/Ø! In addition to being able to say! The book which Mary read! We can also say! The book that Mary read! and! The book Mary read! And they all mean the same thing. So weexpect that they would all have basically thesame structure (they all have a questionadjoined in the nP)—so where is the wh-word inthe last two?Op! The secret to these last two kinds of relativeclauses is Op, the silent wh-word.! That is, the book which Mary read and thebook Mary read are really exactly the sameexcept that in one case you pronounce thewh-word, and in the other, you don’t.! the book [CP whichi Mary read ti ]! the book [CP Opi Mary read ti ]Op! It is also possible to pronounce that with Op,giving us:! the book [CP Opi that [TP Mary read ti ]]! Why can’t we pronounce that with which?! *the book [CP whichi that [TP Mary read ti ]]3Doubly-Filled COMP filter! The Doubly-Filled COMP filter is the traditional “explanation”:! Doubly-Filled COMP filter:*[CP wh-word if/that/for…]! You can’t pronounce both a wh-word and C at the same time.Thus:! the book [CP Opi [TP Mary read ti ]]! the book [CP Opi that [TP Mary read ti ]]! the book [CP whichi [TP Mary read ti ]]! *the book [CP whichi that [TP Mary read ti ]]Op! Skeptical of Op? Is there really wh-movementof Op, a silent wh-phrase?! I read the book [CP whichi [TP Mary said[CP that [TP Bill bought ti ]]]].! *I read the book [CP whichi [IP Mary wonders[CP who [TP bought ti ]]]].! I read the book [CP Opi (that) [TP Mary said[CP that [TP Bill bought ti ]]]].! *I read the book [CP Opi (that) [TP Mary wonders[CP who [TP bought ti ]]]].Op! So if we have a silent wh-phrase, why can’t weask questions with it?! Wherei did Mary buy this book ti ?! The place [Opi Mary bought this book ti ]! Wheni did Mary buy this book ti ?! The time [Opi Mary bought this book ti ]! Whyi did Mary buy this book ti ?! The reason [Opi Mary bought this book ti ]! Howi did Mary buy this book ti ?! The way [Opi Mary bought this book ti ]! *Opi did Mary buy this book ti ?! See why?Op! Recoverability condition: The content ofa null category must be recoverable.! the place [Opi (that) Mary bought that book ti ]! the day [Opi (that) Mary bought that book ti ]! the reason [Opi (that) Mary bought that book ti ]! the way [Opi (that) Mary bought that book ti ]! In each case, we can tell what the wh-phrase is by looking at the head noun.A word about interpretation! Let’s think for a moment about what awh-question means:! Who did Pat meet?[CP [DP who]i Tk+C [TP Pat meet tk]]! Something like (a ‘logical form’):Tell me (a person) xsuch that Pat met x is true.Pronouncing & interpreting! There are two things we need to do with thelexical items we assemble on theworkbench:! Pronounce the sentence! Interpret the
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